KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — While aircraft and ships continue their thankless search this morning for the objects sighted in the southern Indian Ocean that Australia has called a “credible lead” in the hunt for MH370, oceanographers have urged the world to proceed with caution.

They said the objects could well be just ocean junk like a shipping container washed or tossed overboard by passing vessels over the years.

Dr Simon Boxall, a lecturer at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, said in an NBC News report that around 10,000 containers get washed over the sides of ships and quays every year.

“And that could be exactly what we are seeing here,” he was quoted saying in the report.

“It could be lots of things.”

Jason Middleton, a professor of aviation with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, agreed, the report said.

“The chances of it being debris from the airplane are probably small, and the chances of it being debris from other shipping are probably large,” he was reported saying by the Associated Press.

Yesterday, authorities in Australia announced what could possibly be a major breakthrough in the two-week hunt for MH370, the wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft that disappeared mysteriously off the coast of Kota Baru on March 8.

Satellite images taken on Sunday, March 16, showed at least two objects in the Indian Ocean, south of the search zone for MH370 that Australia was leading.

The largest of the objects found measured 24 metres or 79 feet in length, Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Emergency Response division general manager John Young told a press conference yesterday afternoon.

“This is a lead, probably the best lead we have in the search, but we need to get there to see if it is related to MH370,” he said.

Several assets from the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force and United States Navy were immediately deployed to the area but initial searches, which were hampered by low visibility and bad weather conditions, returned no positive information.

According to journalist Janet Porter of London-based shipping magazine Lloyd’s List on the NBC report, the 24 metre-long object is far too big to be a shipping container.

Citing Porter, NBC said the largest container used anywhere else in the world is just 45 feet in length, which is nearly half the size of the object sighted.

“If the object is more than 70 feet long, then it cannot be a shipping container. You would know if your ship lost something that large,” she was quoted saying.